Configure Appium on Windows

We all know about the basics of Appium. So let us now spend some time on understanding how Appium can be configured on Windows.

In order to get started with Appium on Windows, you need to perform the following tasks.

Install Appium.exe for Windows by downloading the setup from here – https://bitbucket.org/appium/appium.app/downloads/

Android SDK has to be installed next. You need to make certain that the API level you install is higher than 17. Additionally, you need to set the ANDROID_HOME environment variable to the SDK folder. About the PATH variable, you need to add tools and platform-tools.

Next up, you need to install JAVA SDK. Make sure you set JAVA_HOME variable to JDK folder.

The fourth step involves the downloading of the latest version of Eclipse – http://eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/Kepler/SR2-WITH-JAVA8-PATCHES.

Once Eclipse is downloaded, also get the ADT plug-in installed for the same.

In case you like the Genymotion emulator better than Android, in that case the Genymotion software can be downloaded & installed.

To be able to launch the Genymotion emulator from Enclipse, it is important you installed the Genymotion plug-in. It can be downloaded from here – http://plugins.genymotion.com/eclipse.

Additionally, you also need to be installing Client Library with Selenium Web Driver Jar & Appium Server Support. Once installed, that has to be imported to the project. Following is list of client library that is supported in Appium.

Ruby

https://github.com/appium/ruby_lib

Python

https://github.com/appium/python-client

Java

https://github.com/appium/java-client

JavaScript (Node.js)

https://github.com/admc/wd

Objective C

https://github.com/appium/selenium-objective-c

PHP

https://github.com/appium/php-client

C# (.NET)

https://github.com/appium/appium-dotnet-driver

RobotFramework

https://github.com/jollychang/robotframework-appiumlibrary

After that, you also need to be downloading the client library of language. This is where you will be writing the automation script. If you are new to Automation, you would be advised to choose Java. Next up, you need to download Selenium Web Driver Jar. That can be done from here. These libraries tend to wrap up with standard Selenium client libraries. This provides all the regular as well as necessary selenium commands that are determined by the JSON Wire Protocol. You can also append additional commands that relate to the controlling of mobile devices. These can include screen orientation and multi-touch gestures.

NOTE: You need to import both libraries while creating new project, and add it to Java Build Path.

Additional Setup for Old version of Android

Appium makes use of Selendroid for running Android versions from 2.3 to 4.1. As soon as Appium identifies an older version, it automatically switches to Selendroid model. To be able to automate with Selendroid make sure you have installed Maven 3.1.1 or newer.